The Find function in Excel determines the exact location (in number format) of a specified short text string within another longer one.
Whenever the text searched for is not found, the Excel Find formula returns the #VALUE error.
Figure 1. of Find Function in Excel
Generic Formula
=FIND(find_text,within_text,[start_num])
- find_text = The text we want Excel to find.
- within_text = The text string for Excel to search within.
- start_num (optional) = The starting point for Excel to begin the search (defaults is 1).
The Find or search function in Excel is case-sensitive; thus, it does not recognize wildcards such as asterisk, tilde, and question mark.
How to Use the Find Function in Excel
We will now use the Find formula in Excel to locate a series of sub-text within larger text strings in the simple steps highlighted below;
- We start by collecting the data available to us inside our spreadsheet;
Figure 2. of Text Strings in Excel
Our goal in the illustration above is to search the text strings in column B for the values in each cell in column A.
Be sure to allocate empty cells for the search function in Excel to return the desired results (see column D above)
- The Excel Find formula we will enter into cell D2 above is as follows;
=FIND(A2,B2)
Figure 3. of Find Function in Excel
The find function in Excel returned “6” as the number value representing the exact location of the letter “r” inside the word “leopard”.
- To generate similar results, modify and copy the find function in D2 down the other cells in the RESULT column;
Figure 4. of Find Function in Excel
Note that the Excel Find formula returned the #VALUE error in cell D6, because of the case sensitive nature of the find function.
Leave a Comment